“the party had retained his allowance..”

So despite not being able to claim the Independent TD’s allowance when actually an Independent TD, and despite other TDs continuing to claim it in a similar situation, Beverley Flynn is to write to the Oireachtas asking that the allowance be withdrawn after speaking to Taoiseach Brian Cowen.  Good witch hunt work everyone..  Now perhaps we can get to work on a campaign to allow Joe Behan to claim the same allowance.. or maybe get Fianna Fáil to return the part of the funding they receive for having his name on their list of TDs?

Joe Behan TD, who resigned from Fianna Fáil to become an Independent, said yesterday the party had retained his allowance.

The Minister also said the legislation should be examined: “It does seem farcical that somebody who gets elected as a party politician, even if they were to leave the party the following day, would not have the support of the party and not get the Independent’s allowance, and vice versa, and I think that’s an issue that has to be considered.”

Pete Baker @ 10:46 AM | Comments (2)

Time to go.

Bishop of Cloyne Bishop John Magee has accepted responsibility for dangerous child protection practices after a report by the NBSC, found the Cloyne diocese had failed vulnerable children

Kathleen @ 08:02 PM | Comments (41)

Irish Blog Awards: nominations open…

Right, count down to Cork has already begun… I’m sure there’s no truth in the rumour that Damien has decamped to Cork Airport just to shake us Nordies off the trail… Anyway there are plenty of good Irish blogs out there this year to fill the nomination slots… One of the most recent is this impressive group blog of eminent Irish economists… if ever politics was subservient to the needs of economics it is now… Stephen Kinsella should be in with a shout, as should the nerveless Gerard O’Neill who has made a stunning entry into the Irish blogosphere. And, Killian Forde has got to be in with a shout for the political blog of the year, who blogs with a great mix of seriousness and humour (and he’s one of your actual politicians)… Good luck too to the boys at CLR one of our favourite southern watering holes… Northern blogs we like, but which may not find favour with the southern panel are, of course, Chekov; O’Neill and Burke’s Corner. Conall Street is a crosser of borders as is Splintered Sunrise… And Malcolm Redfellow ought to get a mention too… And one of the few Northern MLAs to take the whole blog things seriously (sorry Gerry, you’re not long enough with us yet to tell), Daithi McKay could do with a shout…

Mick Fealty @ 05:05 PM | Comments (21)

“around the same time the Sun will die..”

At the Guardian’s Science blog, Bill McGuire of the Hazard Research Centre at University College London answers the question “What are the chances of a devastating supervolcano in Yellowstone?”.  There have been rumblings at the caldera.. Thankfully the chances are low, for now.  But it will almost certainly occur before we, as in the Milky Way galaxy, collide with neigbourly Andromeda, even if that prospect has been brought forward significantly following a recalculation of the mass of the Milky Way - using the telescopes in the Very Long Baseline Array. And apparently we’re spinning around much faster than previously thought.. [That’ll be why you feel dizzy - Ed].  Professor Gerry Gilmore explains further. [mp3 file]

Pete Baker @ 04:50 PM | Comments (1)

Slugger’s Daily Blogburst…

Right after a time off, here’s the return of the daily blogburst… If you have candidate posts for inclusion you can mail them to . Kicking off with Gerard, who notes that Benedict did not get a fraction of the Brickbats for loving up to Capitalism than he did for attacking Gays. But, says Gerard, if he really wants to love up to the global market economy he might need to look at that little matter of Papal Infallibility…

Mick Fealty @ 04:39 PM | Comments (3)

“They are looking at rationalisation of the airport..”

The BBC reports that Derry City Council Chief Executive Valerie Watts has stated that staff levels at the City of Derry Airport will be reduced, apparently without the use of compulsory redundancies.  The Irish News adds that the former managing director at Belfast International Airport, Albert Harrison, has been appointed as the new airport manager, which the Council own, as they prepare to try to sell the airport make the changes.  Official statement here. As for the elected representatives.. The Belfast Telegraph turns up DUP Cllr Joe Miller

“They are looking at rationalisation of the airport, they are looking at relocating if there is to be any movement there will be a relocation of people. I don’t think the word redundancy has been mentioned, this is a very positive move for the airport,” [Cllr Joe Miller] said.

Pete Baker @ 01:31 PM | Comments (8)

UTV on the brink

To highlight the plight of UTV staff when so many face redundancy elsewhere may seem like special pleading but it isn’t. The united joint statement from the Assembly leadership seems like a last ditch appeal against already authorised cuts.

“The regulator (Ofcom) believes UTV should be permitted to cut news output from five hours weekly to four and non-news programming from four hours to just 90 minutes.”

On the face of it, this sounds like UTV opting out of all but top-line news coverage and its proud history of half a century of reflecting the wider, especially the popular culture which it often carried out with considerably more panache than the more lumbering BBC.

It is always possible, although a real loss, to make fewer video reports, to get out and about less, even at a pinch, to do away with studio altogether. But jobs apart, it is now urgently incumbent on the UTV management to say what they mean by the following:

“No one is more committed to high quality regional production for Northern Ireland than UTV.”

The prospect of leaving NI with a virtual local BBC monopoly takes us back to the mid fifties, a disaster in the digital age. And no, FaceBook and YouTube and certainly RTE’s northern-focused output don’t cut it, as a complement to UTV’s deplorable reduction to the scale of a local news station in the US boondocks.

Brian Walker @ 12:50 PM | Comments (18)

Northern Ireland’s big bubble is burst..

A UK nationwide survey of house prices in the Guardian reveals the size of NI’s burst bubble.

After two years of massive growth, a correction in Northern Ireland was on the cards in 2008, and it came when prices dropped by a staggering 34.2% over the year, according to Nationwide…Realistically one might expect Northern Ireland to remain the worst affected region in 2009, given the especially severe overshoot of house prices relative to earnings in the province during the boom years.”

What is the impact of this on the local economy ?

Update. A mixed picture for the crucial Christmas season reported today, with Debenham’s and John Lewis doing well overall but M&S about to cut 1,00 jobs. But is the Bel Tel’s story too negative? I would say not, but some in business would say yes. 

Brian Walker @ 11:52 AM | Comments (19)

“does not change regardless of departures, resignations or death..”

Cian appears to be less than sympathetic to Beverley Flynn’s argument for claiming the Independent TD’s allowance but, as I noted last night, the “technicalities” of the legislation have worked against her in the past.  Meanwhile the Irish Times notes how Fine Gael employed sleight of hand in dealt with a similar situation in the past.

However, former Wexford-based Independent TD Liam Twomey did offer to give up the allowance to Fine Gael during negotiations with the party before he joined the party in October 2004. Responding to questions, Fine Gael said the party eventually decided that as Mr Twomey was elected as an Independent and did not have a political operation, the allowance should be spent on improving his operation.

Pete Baker @ 11:47 AM | Comments (0)

Do we really want a “save save save” culture?

David Cameron has announced plans to abolish tax on savings for lower rate tax payers and to build a culture of “save save save”.

Kensei @ 09:42 AM | Comments (14)

Gerry gets plugged in to blogging…

OUR commenter Comrade Stalin cheekily suggested the other day that Gerry Adams needs a hobby, little thinking that the Sinn Fein president would be paying attention. Yes folks, Gerry has a new hobby. And it is blogging. Catch the first post here, and don’t forget to leave a comment for Gerry (pictured here with his first wireless communications device).

Belfast Gonzo @ 02:24 AM | Comments (40)

Alzheimer’s and dementia. The arguments for assisted dying.

This part of the speech deals with the slippery slope argument, of which there are many versions.  Among the versions of this argument is that if a law comes in it is sure to be abused.  Patients will no longer trust their doctors, and the distinction between voluntary and non-voluntary suicide will be eroded if the law is liberalised.  The slippery slope argument argues that patients will be coerced because they feel they are a burden on family or society or the NHS, and that their finances will be squandered on their care.  The argument goes that people could be coerced into making this decision by predatory relatives after their money.  But this argument forgets a huge part of human psychology, and that is that life has a purpose, and no one wants to be a burden.

Kathleen @ 02:23 AM | Comments (6)

The sanctity of human life is not an absolute principle.

An excerpt from the speech made by Baroness Mary Warnock in Belfast this evening. This is the first part of the argument in favour of assisted dying.  The excerpt deals with- a) is it possible to have more liberal laws in favour of assisted dying, and b) the sanctity of human life is not an absolute principle.  The second part of the argument will be dealt with in another thread, later threads will continue with the argument against.

Kathleen @ 01:31 AM | Comments (7)

Oireachtas beaten to its own anniversary by Sinn Fein…

World by Storm has a nice piece, which hints just how long it took the plodders at the Oireachtas Commission to decided it actually wanted the Mansion House to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the meeting of the First Dail in the fabulously renovated Round Room there on 21st January 1919. It will go ahead, but on the 20th because it seems someone had already beaten the Irish state to it for the 21st.  For Sinn Fein that anniversary is not part of history, but the present. It remains an article of Sinn Fein belief they are no ordinary political party but the alternative All Irish Government-in-waiting. A coup (de etat? - ed) for Sinn Fein then; but what does it say about the complacency of the Oireachtas Commission that it failed even to take an option on such a critical date in the State’s history?

Mick Fealty @ 11:34 PM | Comments (30)

Cameron and the problem of staying new, liberal AND Tory…

Over at Brassneck I’ve suggested the Tories may be struggling to keep to the offering they’ve been slow-feeding out to the public over the last few years, not the least the willingness to decentralise power and a credible proposition on facing into the world wide recession. Team Cameron’s latest suggestion to cap local councils smacks not only of a weak commitment to localism, but of an old and politically damaging Tory propensity to distrust government in all its forms…

Mick Fealty @ 11:24 PM | Comments (3)

“we’ll end up with whatever is appropriate being done will be done”

In the course of looking into the detail behind this I changed my mind about who it causes difficulty for.  At first glance it would appear that Beverley Flynn TD is in difficulty after Taoiseach Brian Cowen told RTÉ that

“I’ll give the opportunity for Deputy Flynn to talk to me about it and we’ll have a discussion about it and we’ll end up with whatever is appropriate being done will be done”

"It" being the more than €40,000 annual tax-free allowance for Independent TDs.  Deputy Flynn is now back within the Fianna Fáil fold after being elected as an Independent.  And some reports interpreted Brian Cowen’s comments to mean “Cowen to confront Flynn over €41,000 extra payout”.  But, as the Irish Times report notes, she has in the past also been denied the allowance when actually an Independent TD.

When Ms Flynn was expelled from Fianna Fáil in 2004 after her failed RTÉ libel case, she was not entitled to the allowance because she had been elected as a Fianna Fáil party TD.  She told Midwest Radio: “Prior to the last election I was elected as a Fianna Fáil TD. I found myself outside Fianna Fáil after the first year and spent the following four years as an Independent.  “In that particular case I did not receive the Independent allowance despite the fact that I did not have the support of the party structure and had the additional expenses that all Independent deputies have.”

If the “technicalities” of the legislation were used to prevent her claiming the Independent TDs allowance in the past they can also be used to allow her to claim it now. Surely that would be “appropriate”?

Pete Baker @ 07:14 PM | Comments (7)

“We need to be prepared for the unexpected..”

As the BBC report, both Northern Ireland Executive junior ministers have been in front of the Assembly Committee for the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister - a Sub-Committee met in closed session earlier today.  According to their joint press statement the two junior ministers emphasised the need for the NI Executive [Assuming they can actually meet - Ed] to be able to “respond rapidly to any emerging crisis or hardship” to justify the new mechanism they want the Assembly to create - to be controlled by the Office of the First and Deputy First Ministers.  And there was me thinking that it was just a blatant power-grab by the semi-detached polit-bureau.. [Can you tell what it is yet? - Ed]

Pete Baker @ 05:19 PM | Comments (0)

“The clock was installed in the Clock Tower in April 1859”

2009 marks the 150th anniversary of the completion of the current UK parliamentary clock tower, the installation of the clock, and the first chiming of the bell, Big Ben.  The UK’s parliamentary website is hosting a mini-site on the anniversary detailing the history of earlier towers, and a sundial, as well as the delays in building the current one. There are also some images from the Parliamentary Works of Art collection. Adds In the comments zone Rory reminded me that a leap second was added to the end of last year, and this BBC report on that extra second includes a fascinating look at the clock mechanism designed by Edmund Beckett Denison.

Pete Baker @ 02:56 PM | Comments (4)

What would happen pact in a hung parliament..?

WRITING in today’s Tele, Conservative/Ulster Unionist Party working group member Johnny Andrews says that “Our objectives and values have converged with a reformed and newly invigorated Conservative Party now poised for power”. He goes on to argue that while the DUP engage in “little Ulster politics, it is up to us with new clear forward thinking policies to take on our historic mantle of moving Northern Ireland forward”. But with the prospect of a hung parliament now being taken seriously by senior civil servant mandarins, could the UUP/Tory pact face an early test if the Conservatives decided that DUP votes in Westminster were worth burying the hatchet with Peter Robinson?

Belfast Gonzo @ 01:14 PM | Comments (18)

Gaza: the death or birth of political moderation?

Over at the Guardian I’ve a posted on the Gaza crisis. Well, not exactly the Gaza crisis so much as the lack of political will on both sides to bring the the whole of problem of Israel/Palestine to an equitable solution. Both sides share a single problem: both are stuck in fundamentalist mode; without the least thought about how to get to that solution. The inuring to death on both sides is familiar to those of us in Northern Ireland who lived through the worst years of the Troubles. Afterwards it put me in mind of the words of an old friend and poet Phil Whitfield who was at the time of writing a young British Army doctor with the troops who liberated the death camp at Bergen Belsen:

Death of one is the death of all.
It is not the dead I pity.

Mick Fealty @ 12:49 PM | Comments (84)

Euthanasia debate tonight in Belfast…

Will Crawley is chairing an open debate on euthanasia at 7.00 pm at All Souls Church, Elmwood Avenue. He’s already kick started a decent debate over at his Will and Testament blog…

Mick Fealty @ 11:06 AM | Comments (8)

New Joint committee for Tories and UUP…

The Ulster Unionist and Conservative Parties have just announced their joint Committee for the enforcement oversight of the Memorandum of Understanding last November…

Mick Fealty @ 11:01 AM | Comments (49)

O’Reilly’s house of cards is shaking

Time magazine November 2007

We will have a completely different type of Waterford. Waterford Wedgwood will be a very profitable business in eight to 12 months.

This was Tony O’Reilly’s prediction to the prestigious Time magazine, along with a bullish claim that the newspaper industry was “growing quite slowly, but it is growing.”

Now the predictions have turned to sand.

“Problems at Waterford Wedgwood come at a unfortunate time for Sir Anthony, who is also grappling with €1.4 billion of debts at Independent News & Media (IN&M), his ( separate) media group. Although the two companies are entirely separate, both are under pressure, with IN&M trying to offload its Australian business to reduce debts.”

No one can say that the boss of Irish and UK Independent newspapers including the Belfast Telegraph, ducks a challenge. But with cost-cutting proceeding apace, is the time coming close for predator Denis O’Brien to strike or form an unholy alliance with O’Reilly? The odds on a sale even of shrinking cash cow the Belfast Telegraph must gradually be shortening, as O’Reilly’s house of cards, already fragile before the onslaught of recession, starts to wobble.

Brian Walker @ 10:43 AM | Comments (25)

Grim days back in 1909.

The Newsletter is reporting on remarks made by Mary McAleese last night that young Irish men joined the British army to escape poverty rather than any sense of patriotism.

She referred to the “grim days back in 1909” when SIPTU’s forerunner, the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, had been founded by Jim Larkin.

She said that the world he had lived in back then was one where “the struggle was against starvation, disease and exploitation, where the lack of education of the masses was matched only by the ignorance of the economic and political elites”.

President McAleese continued: “Here was what Thomas Kettle would memorably describe, less than a decade later, as ‘the secret scripture of the poor’ that would drive tens of thousands of young Irish men into the British Army to sacrifice their lives so that their families could eat.”

Kettle was a nationalist Home Rule politician and journalist, barrister, writer, poet and economist who died at the Somme.

Jeffrey Donaldson says she isn’t accurate and Ken Magenness describes her remarks as a ,

“second faux pas” – her first, he said, being her comments four years ago that Protestant children were taught to hate Catholics in the same way Nazis despised Jews.

So is she accurate or is this a second faux pas as Ken Magennis suggests?

Kathleen @ 10:31 AM | Comments (80)

A worse than budgeted for tax short fall of 8 billion euro.

Tonights’ RTE evening news gave a report on the remarks made by Brian Cowen about the exchequer returns to be published tomorrow.  From the report:

When asked about how government can rescue the public finances Brian Cowen said no option can be ruled out.  The completed exchequer returns for last year will show a worse than budgeted for tax short fall of 8 billion euro, and he acknowledged that without corrective action the exchequer deficit for next year could be 20 billion.

He also said no option can be ruled out including scrapping the national wage agreement and reducing public sector jobs will be discussed when he mets the social partners later this month and although there were difficulties lying ahead he was not concerned about FF’s prospects in upcoming local and European elections.

Kathleen @ 10:33 PM | Comments (31)